Gretchen sat beside her. She didn’t want to burden her daughter, but she owed her honesty.
“Your father made very bad decisions with our family’s money,” Gretchen said gently. “Adults make terrible mistakes too, but they have to fix what they break.”
“Did he steal money from me?” Maxine asked, voice trembling.
The question nearly broke her.
“He took money set aside for your college education,” Gretchen said. “But everything is being done to put it back.”
Maxine stared at her hands.
“He told me last week this was happening because you worked too much at the hospital,” she whispered.
Gretchen closed her eyes for a moment. Even here, Joshua had planted guilt in their daughter to protect himself.
“I worked a lot of extra shifts, and our marriage had real problems,” Gretchen said. “But nothing excuses lying, hiding money, or blaming someone else for your own choices.”
Maxine cried quietly, wiping her face.
“I don’t want to hate him,” she said.
“You don’t have to,” Gretchen reassured her. “You can love your father and still be deeply disappointed in him at the same time.”
A week later, Joshua’s firm launched a full internal audit. The fake invoices, improper expenses, and the conflict of interest with Cheyenne raised concerns that went far beyond the divorce.
